Silk is associated with luxury and known for its luster, strength and softness. This natural protein fiber originated over 8,500 years ago in ancient China and was traded along the famed Silk Road.
Conventional silk production, known as sericulture, is the cultivation of silkworm larvae that feed primarily on mulberry leaves and spin cocoons around themselves during metamorphosis. When these cocoons are harvested, silk fibers are extracted and undergo dyeing, spinning, and weaving before being sold as fabric for clothing, bedding, and even surgical sutures and aerospace applications.
How is Silk Sustainable? If you take care of silk and wash it carefully, this durable fiber will last for a long time, which - depending on your overall shopping habits – reduces waste. Silk clothing does not contain plastic-based materials like polyester, so there is no microplastic shedding when hand-washed. Of course, there are chemicals and toxic solvents associated with most dry cleaning services. While the natural properties of silkworms, cocoons, and silk fibers make them a biodegradable and renewable resource, the production of silk comes at a high environmental cost.
How is Silk NOT Sustainable? The silk production chain is a labor-intensive process. It takes around 2,500 silkworms to produce one pound of raw silk. Silkworms voraciously eat leaves primarily from mulberry trees, which require substantial amounts of agricultural land and water, as do cleaning and processing the resulting textile. Toxic wastewater from the making of silk products usually goes untreated into waterways. Acid dyes, metal-complex dyes, and reactive dyes further impact the biodegradability of silk and pollute local water supplies. Large amounts of energy are consumed during the cocoon-boiling phase as well as the degumming, bleaching, drying, and processing phases of silk production. Although silk may use relatively fewer pesticides, fertilizers, and manure compared to cotton and other natural fibers, these chemicals release nitrous oxide, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
Is Silk Unethical? Unfortunately, there’s a dark side to silk production. Bonded child labor, in which children work in servitude to pay off family debt, is a type of forced labor that still exists globally despite continued efforts. A 2003 Human Rights Watch report claimed that in India, the second largest producer of silk and the largest consumer of silk in the world, children as young as five years old might work 12-hour days, 7 days a week under hazardous conditions. These children are usually low-caste, illiterate, and poor. UNICEF and NGOs (non-governmental agencies such as CARE India) do get involved and bonded child labor has decreased significantly as of 2012, however, government corruption and loopholes persist to this day, especially in rural cottage industries. Fair trade certification identifies silk made according to ethical labor standards and pays workers fair wages.
If you are committed to vegan or cruelty-free fashion, you will want to avoid conventionally made silk. Not only is silk an animal by-product, but cultivated silkworm caterpillars are boiled, steamed, or baked alive in their cocoons in order to keep the silk filament intact.
What are the Alternatives? Silk that is cruelty-free, known as Peace Silk or Ahimsa Silk, allows moths to complete their lifecycle and leave their cocoons naturally, but since the species of caterpillar used for silk, the Bombyx mori, has been bred and cultivated for thousands of years, the moths can’t see, fly, or flee predators and don’t survive long after checking out. The production process of peace silk remains labor-intensive and costly, and the silk is not as soft and drapey; however, more ethical brands are starting to embrace it. Wild silk, also known as Vanya Silk, Tussar Silk, or Tussah Silk, is made from empty cocoons collected in forests where wild moths have hatched and flown away. Wild silkworms feed on leaves from non-mulberry trees like oak and castor and produce more earthy, less shiny silk, but this type of silk is humane, durable, and requires less energy and chemicals to produce.
Organic silk avoids harmful pesticides and fertilizers and aligns with ecological and fair-trade principles, but it isn’t synonymous with being cruelty-free. Oeko-Tex and GOTS-certification labels assure consumers that an item was produced under responsible, transparent, and sustainable practices.
Perhaps the most sustainable silk of all is second-hand silk. Recycling repurposed silk and silk remnants bypasses additional production and reduces waste. Innovative companies continue to come up with alternatives to traditional silk with varying levels of success and sustainability. These include spider silk, banana silk, cactus silk, pineapple silk, orange fiber, bamboo, and even lotus flower silk!
Sources and Further Reading:
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/9/10/802
https://biddlesawyersilks.com/how-is-silk-made-a-step-by-step-guide/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour_in_India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonded_Labor_System_(Abolition)_Act,_1976
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road
https://liuba.style/index.php?route=extension/blog/blog&blog_id=14
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods
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